Monday, 23 September 2013

Mangalore to Coorg – and I enjoyed the leeches suck my blood.

If you have a death wish, visit Mangalore- the traffic here
is so chaotic that one may blindfold himself and still drive much better.
Drivers and riders in Mangalore lack road etiquette and are oblivious of any
traffic rules. The bus drivers top the pecking order of bad driving, with horns
blaring at jet level decibels; it’s as if rest of the traffic is theirs to roll
over. The two wheelers thankfully can’t go over or below a vehicle, else they
would have done that too. It will be a challenge not to see someone drive in
the wrong lane at super-fast speed. We started our trip from this maddening
city at 0630 AM towards Coorg on the 10th of September.

The roads connecting Mangalore and Coorg,

We had booked a cottage at Kabbe holidays- a homestay far
away from the maddening city life. The roads from Mangalore to Sullia are
pretty good, and then we had 25 kms of
crater ridden road to deal with. I would probably have preferred driving on the
moon, than in Sullia. The moment we enter the district of Coorg, the roads are
carpet again. The road is quite undulating all the way till Madikeri and the scenic
greenery is jaw dropping beautiful.

We reached Kabbe Holidays at about 1 PM and had lunch there.
We were pleasantly surprised at the beautifully laid out cottages and the
lovely scenic view their offered, right from the luxury of our beds.

We spent the remainder of the day, listening
to the call of the birds and staring into the serene horizon.

Dinner was enlightening with our host, Dilip- realising that
Aari was Gluten Intolerant he taught us to make fluffy rice chapatis, rice cake
and a couple of other rice delicacies. After a lip smacking dinner, we did what
we do best- sleep

The next day, Dilip, Praveen (another guest at the place)
and myself went on a trek to a nearby hill. The trek was quite short, but to my
unexercised bulky body- quite a challenge. The trek was quite beautiful, with
fog rolling down the hill and clearing up frequently.

The moment we reached the
peak, we saw 5 wild elephants about 750 mtrs from where we were. We decided to
brave a few thorny bushes and sneak a wee bit closer to the pack. During this
process we lost sight of the elephants and rolling fog further reduced
visibility. At this moment we heard a loud trumpet of one of the elephants and
we decided to rush back to our safe point. Out here I fell into a small pit and
thankfully the tall grass, cushioned my fall. I looked at my camera lens and
thankfully it was all right. I hauled myself outside the pit and realised that
scores of leeches were desperately trying to get into my skin. Not minding the
leeches, I continued my rush towards the safe place. Once back into open
ground, I started the laborious task of plucking out the leeches- it was quite
exhilarating to be sucked so professionally- no pain and no clots.

Once back into our cottages, I was quite excited to rattle
out my story to Aari and see her get jealous.

In the afternoon, we went to a nearby waterfall. Aari and I
had seen quite many waterfalls this month and quite expectedly, more than the
waterfall I was happy to see the frogs that resided there.

They were mating frogs and singles looking at the mating
frogs. Since I had carried my tripod, I
decided to get a few long exposure shots of the waterfall anyway.

In the evening, Aari and I had a nice romantic walk in the
fog covered walkway of the nearby hill. The blanket of fog providing us a nice
cloak of privacy. We also enjoyed speaking and befriending a few friendly local
people and they were truly warm towards us.

The morning of our departure, Aari and I decided to wake up
early morning, brave the cold and do some bird watching. It was a truly rewarding
experience. Other than the common birds like the bulbuls, cuckoo’s and drongo’s
we spotted Velvet fronted nuthatch, Grey hornbill, wagtails, whiteeye, scarlet
minivet, laughing thrush and a busy golden back woodpecker.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
VFN
VFN who?
Velvet Fronted Nuthatch

A scarlet Minivet sets the forest on fire..,

With mom,dad and our new found friends Srivani and Praveen.

We had a heavy dosa laden breakfast and started our drive
back to Mangalore at 10AM. We had a pitstop at Madikeri for some wild honey and
reached Mangalore at 3PM. We somehow felt that the roads were wee better on our
return trip that during the onward journey. All in all it was a never to be forgotten experience,
one that we would love to relive again.